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1 thought on “ASD Self-Diagnosis Tests”

The problem with Extreme Male Brain theory is most people don’t have the first clue what it actually means. If they did, rather than basing their dislike on a superficial (and false) interpretation of what those three words mean, they may begin to see that it make a lot of sense.

In the Neurotypical world, the majority of men are Systematisers. That is (basically) their brain puts things into categories and they can figure out how things work. As the majority of men are Systematisers, systematising can be considered the primary trait representative of the Male Brain.

Conversely, the majority of Neurotypical women are Empathisers – their brain is highly attuned to feeling and understanding the emotional needs of others. As the majority of women are Empathisers, empathising can be considered the primary trait representative of the Female Brain.

The majority of Autistics are “Extreme Systematisers”, and possess a brain more highly attuned than others for spotting patterns, seeing how things work and putting things into categories than do other systematisers. Since the typical Male Brain systematises, and the typical Autistic brain systematises to a considerably greater (“extreme”) degree, it makes perfect sense to consider that Autistics have an Extreme Male Brain … that is an extreme version of the cognitive ability found predominantly in the brains of non-Autistic males. Extreme Male Brain has ‘nothing’ to do with gender, gender identity or sexuality.

Further to this, there is considerable research into Neurotypicals having “gendered brains” … and they also often jump to the same spurious conclusions as to how this is somehow related to their physical gender or sexuality. For example, a Neurotypical male with an empathising brain will be considered, due to the minority of males (but majority of females) who have such a brain, to have a Female Brain. This is not some conspiracy against Autistics or attack on their sexuality or gender identity, but is based upon the ‘gendered brain’ research that goes back well beyond Baron-Cohen’s EMB hypothesis.

I do not reject the compelling hypothesis of Extreme Male Brain. What I do reject, however, is that our brain is disordered, diseased or defective.

Re: Alexithymia

What is commonly not known about Alexithymia is the deleterious effect it can have upon one’s ability to prioritise. While no doubt many Autistics can be lazy, this should not be confused with an Alexithymic difficulty with prioritisation. The ability to prioritise is not cognitive as most people believe, but is in fact emotional … putting an emotional value on Task A over Task B. For a person without that innate understanding of emotions** prioritising one’s time can be difficult. The three keys to Alexithymic prioritisation issues are structure, structure and structure.

** Autistic Alexithymia is called “Primary Alexithymia”, as we were born this way. Secondary Alexithymia, which is by far the most common type, is frequently developed in people with various mental health issues (eating disorders, PTSD, anxiety, substance abuse issues, etc).